Students and Labs Team Up!

Students –
     > looking for a summer job?
     > looking to broaden your experience?
     > looking for practice opportunities?

Contact an OLA-Member Optical Lab about an internship!

An OLA-Member Optical Lab can offer –
   > a paying job for the summer
   > an internship to get first-hand experience with making eyeglasses
   > a tour of a lab – see what’s at the other end of the Rx
   > referrals to practice opportunities in the lab’s area

Interested?   Look up a lab and contact them right away!

1. Go to the Lab Directory right now - click HERE!  Any other time, go to www.ola-labs.org, then click Lab Directory in the left margin.
2. Select the search criteria you want to use – state, city, or company name – to get the contact information for OLA-Member labs.
3. When you call the lab contact person, identify yourself as a student looking for a Student Internship position, and that you looked up the lab on the OLA website.
4. An internship position may take many forms, and all negotiations regarding the position will be between the student and the laboratory.   OLA simply serves as a conduit for connecting students with labs.
5. Depending on what lab you contact, the lab may be interested in a summer employee, or may be willing to arrange a part-time position, or may only be able to offer a comprehensive lab tour.

History –

• In 1994, OLA launched a "Student Internship" program aimed at matching students and optical laboratories.  The program had been suggested by several lab owners who had organized similar programs for their own company in previous years.
• Students gain experience with an important part of their future careers; labs have a chance to build relationships with potential future customers.  Students may find an opportunity that becomes summer employment.  Labs may help solve a perennial problem - maintaining full production during summer vacation months.
• In recent years, it was decided to connect students with labs through the OLA website.   The Lab Directory at www.ola-labs.org includes all OLA-Member labs, and can be searched by country, state, city, or company name.
• An internship position may take many forms, and all negotiations regarding the position will be between the student and the laboratory.   OLA simply serves as a conduit for connecting students with labs.
• Comments from labs and students who have worked together in the past:
  - from a student:   "It was a real good experience for me as far as learning what the ophthalmic end of Optometry is. Our focus in school is now disease-oriented and with the new changes in the law we spend most of our time studying the mechanics of the eye. Being involved in the ophthalmic internship was good for me because we got exposed to different materials and processes. The only other time I would have even stepped into a lab would have been the 15 minutes required for a class. This was the only real exposure I got with relation to the production end of ophthalmics. I learned what goes into producing glasses and being able to see those things first hand helped. Now it makes sense to me because I now know what goes into a pair of eyeglasses, and what unreasonable demands are asked that can not be done in a certain time frame. The environment and exposure was great!"
  - from a lab:   "The program worked well for us. The student worked for 2 1/2 to 3 months in the bench room. Next time we think we'll put him/her in the Customer Service department. The advantage for the lab is that the student gets a feel for the complications the labs face on a daily basis and the pressures they work under. Students benefit because they get a working knowledge of working with lenses. They dealt with 100's of jobs every day. They always worked with something new and learned the mechanical side of their profession. Their main focus in school is working with the physiology of the eye itself, not the technicalities of lenses."
  - from a student:   "I was able to participate in an OLA summer internship, and I thought that it was an invaluable experience. It gave me the opportunity to see what goes into making glasses. It also allowed me to learn a lot about different lenses and see first hand how things work at the other end of the prescription writing. I would highly recommend it to my fellow students for the experience. It did not offer much clinically, but it gives the opportunity to see first hand what goes into making the glasses that I will be ordering from my lab."